Mobile machines within the meaning of the invention are motor-driven vehicles, construction machinery, machines for agriculture and forestry, and associated mounted implements. Nowadays, mobile machines often have a programmable electronic controller for controlling various drive and equipment components. The controller is connected to actuators and optionally to mounted implements via the machine's own network or control bus system and comprises a user interface, at which control commands and parameters can be input or selected. The user interface allows the input of target values for specific parameters and has a display unit on which the input target values, the machine's working parameters and functional signals measured by sensors, and other information, can be graphically displayed. The display unit is also often provided with a touchscreen function which is used for inputting different parameters and for carrying out actions. Control bus systems and user interfaces according to ISO standard 11783 are often used in agricultural vehicles and mobile agricultural machines. A controller and display unit can be integrated in a single device.
In today's often high level of specialization and complicated design of mobile machines, the problem frequently occurs that faults or malfunctions need to be corrected or repairs need to be carried out at the operating site, which requires detailed information describing design features, functions and sources of error. Owing to hardware restrictions of the existing and standardized controllers and user interfaces, only very rudimentary information regarding the machine can be stored therein. A user of the machine is therefore generally dependent on printed manuals with all the advantages and disadvantages thereof. For telephone customer support, the customer must first know and relay certain parameters such as serial number, version number, manufacturing date etc. Due to the often long columns of numbers, this requires a lot of time, which is often not available in critical situations such as during harvesting. Problems or faults can arise even when setting up or programming the machine control for carrying out certain jobs, and this requires the support of an expert or service adviser. Therefore, when such problems occur, it is necessary to help the operator of a machine in as short a time as possible, in order to prevent delays and longer outage times.